Article snippet: 2020 Democratic presidential contenders are giving new attention to the idea of "environmental injustice," heartening green advocates who argue that polluting industries have gone unchecked. A number of candidates have rolled out ambitious plans to tackle decades of pollution and harmful practices that have been concentrated in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods and communities of color. "Our crisis of environmental injustice is the result of decades of discrimination and environmental racism compounding in communities that have been overlooked for too long," Sen. unveiling her environmental justice plan in October. “It is the result of multiple choices that put corporate profits before people, while our government looked the other way. It is unacceptable, and it must change.” At issue are remedies for so-called frontline communities, the disproportionately poor and minority neighborhoods that have been a dumping ground for pollution and landfills or the site of factories and highways that spew harmful contamination into the air. Study after study has found that pollution damages the health of nearby residents, with people of color bearing the brunt. A 2018 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study found black Americans breath in more air pollution than whites — race, the study found, was a stronger predictor than poverty. Activists in those communities have complained they have long been ignored, sidelined by ineffective avenues for challenging polluters as we... Link to the full article to read more
2020 Dems target inequality with green plans | TheHill
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